The highest court of the United Nations will begin proceedings on Thursday regarding South Africa’s accusation – which Israel strongly denies – that Israel’s conflict with Hamas amounted to genocide against the Palestinian people.
In a lawsuit that is predicted to take years to settle, South Africa is first asking for the International Court of Justice to order an immediate halt of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
This disagreement is central to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state founded after the genocidal atrocities of the Nazis during the Holocaust.
South Africa’s identity is also involved: The African National Congress, the governing party there, has long drawn parallels between Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank and its own past as a white minority-ruled apartheid state.